Ohio wins $400 million in Race to the Top money for public schools

View full sizeScott Shaw, The Plain DealerLibrarian Nonie Bailey reads to students at the Douglas MacArthur Girls Leadership Academy in Cleveland on Tuesday. The district expects to get nearly $30 million as its share of Ohio's $400 million in federal Race to the Top money.

With Thomas Ott and Aaron Marshall / Plain Dealer Reporters

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Government and education leaders across Ohio were beaming after Tuesday's announcement that the state won $400 million in the federal government's Race to the Top competition.

But no one was more relieved than Cleveland schools CEO Eugene Sanders, who was banking on the money to help pay for a new academic "transformation plan."

At least half of the state's pot will go to more than 500 districts and charter schools that agreed to be part of the state's reform effort, with amounts determined by the number of students in low-income families. Cleveland will get the most -- $29.5 million to be distributed over four years.

"It's a really good day for us," Sanders said. "We're excited that it came down the way that it did."

The Race to the Top money will be used to train teachers in instructional strategies that vary by building, Sanders said. With other grants already in hand, the district has more than $62 million of the $72 million it estimates is needed for the transformation's plan's start-up costs.

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While Cleveland and other big-city districts will get the biggest chunks of money from Race to the Top, the win should help lift the entire state, Gov. Ted Strickland said at a news conference after Tuesday's announcement. He noted that the state recently rose to fifth place in national rankings compiled by Education Week.

"We are poised to climb even higher in Ohio and believe the Race to the Top resources will do that," he said.

State Superintendent Deborah Delisle sounded a similar note, saying in a statement: "Our work will begin immediately with school districts and community schools which have agreed to be part of our effort to transform education in Ohio and build on the tremendous progress that has been made over the last decade."

Ohio was one of 14 finalists in the first round of the race earlier this year, but only two states - Delaware and Tennessee -- were chosen.

The second and final round saw Ohio and nine others (the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island) win a piece of the $4 billion pie.

Each had a maximum amount it could request, based on population; Ohio asked for $400 million, its maximum.

"The creativity and innovation in each of these applications is breathtaking," U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in his announcement Tuesday. "We set a high bar and these states met the challenge."

Ohio apparently just made the cut, with the lowest score of the 10 Round 2 winners. Duncan said there was only a slim difference between the scores of winners and losers and he wished he had another $5 billion to fund more states.

The Round 2 winners all had adopted rigorous standards in reading and math, came up with ways to put the most effective teachers in the schools that need them most, and offered alternative pathways to teacher and principal certification, Duncan said.

The winners

Nine states and the District of Columbia won Race to the Top funding in Round 2. The winners announced Tuesday were:

District of Columbia: $75 million

Florida: $700 million

Georgia: $400 million

Hawaii: $75 million

Maryland: $250 million

Massachusetts: $250 million

New York: $700 million

North Carolina: $400 million

Ohio: $400 million

Rhode Island: $75 million

Earlier, in Round 1, Delaware was awarded $100 million and Tennessee received $500 million.

Between rounds, Delisle and her team worked to strengthen and add details to the state's application. She got help from KidsOhio and the Ohio Grantmakers Forum, which brought together representatives from 70 organizations to review the document.

She also got more districts and charters to sign on for Round 2. About 53 percent of districts and 66 percent of charter schools in the state took part.

While charter schools generally aren't unionized, districts had to submit signatures from the superintendent, board president and union president.

Although the state's two teacher unions supported the state's plan, many locals balked at a requirement to evaluate teachers annually, using students' academic progress as one of the measures. The evaluations then must be used in decisions on tenure, promotions, layoffs and firings.

What is Race to the Top?

Race to the Top is a competition among states for a share of $4 billion in federal stimulus funds.

The applicants submitted plans showing how they would use the money to boost test scores and graduation rates in public schools. Eleven states, including Ohio, and the District of Columbia were declared winners when their plans earned the highest scores from a panel of reviewers.

The money must be used to:

•Turn around the lowest-performing schools.

•Make sure schools have highly effective teachers and principals.

•Build data systems to measure how students are doing and to improve their instruction.

•Adopt standards and assessments that will prepare students for college and competing in a global economy.

The districts and charters who did sign up will have to submit their individual plans for the Race money by November.

Ohio's application set out four main goals:

•Improve the graduation rate by 0.5 percent a year.

•Halve the gap between graduation rates of minority and white students.

•Halve the gap between the test scores of minority and white students.

•Halve the gap between Ohio and the best-performing states in national math and reading assessments.

How will that play out in the classrooms of participating schools?

Marilyn Troyer, the assistant state superintendent, said the Race to the Top money will be used to bring more tools and resources to Ohio teachers so they can better track their students' achievement.

"We will be generating data reports on value-added growth for each student and providing them to teachers," Troyer said. "We will be providing training on how to use those data tools. We will be creating an instructional improvement system that will have data on the individual students as well as curriculum models and lesson plans and assessments."

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